Sound Check's Blog Posts Tagged 'Music' (33)

"Extreme Metal/Hardcore" in your face with Alekhine’s Gun, representing Brooklyn and the New York City metal scene (you may have caught them at Trash Bar in Brooklyn?). Alekhine’s Gun are AP member Jessica The Crusher Pimentel (vocals), Jeff Martinez (guitars), Daniel Martinez (bass) and Angel Cotte (drums). Check out their EP 'Meditations in Wrath' below, featuring hard-hitting music and lyrics about…

This past weekend, Kanye West premiered two new songs on Saturday Night Live from his forthcoming album, Yeezus, titled “New Slaves” and “Black Skinhead.” The new music, following the premier of the “New Slaves” music video projected on 66 buildings across the globe last Friday, suggests West is returning to the social…

Yesterday, May 19th was Malcolm X's birthday. Had he not been gunned down at age 39, Malcolm would have been 88 this weekend. Despite being often mentioned in the same breath as Dr. King, it doesn't seem likely we'll see a nationally recognized Malcolm X Day in the US any time soon. The firebrand Civil Rights leader's legacy is still being dissected even among his admirers, and probably will be for a long time. So in honor of his immeasurable impact on Civil Rights, Black…

For those of you who were wondering if electro-punk-hip-hop band Death Grips were 1) still together and 2) planning on releasing new music, the answer is: yes and yes. In a recent statement, the band clarified a few things: "Zach is currently writing, directing and soundtracking an original feature film. The movie is of his own creation, fictionally based and not related to the group. The film will be soundtracked with all new Death Grips music. He is also working on and…

Did you know that Jimi Hendrix, Miles Davis and drummer Tony Williams were planning to record an album together? They also tapped Paul McCartney to play bass with them. The project didn't come to life but Associated Press reports some details about the telegram Hendrix sent to McCartney's camp…

Toronto-based singer Melanie Durrant serves big voice and musical drama with her latest single 'Gone'. She basically tells it like it is to the "other woman": "he only wants you when I'm gone". Stream it below and let us know what you think. - L.…

Ignited at the intersection of social commentary and imagination, the cultural undercurrent of Afrofuturism critiques and examines Black subjectivity through the lens of science-fiction. Popularized by such musicians as Sun Ra, George Clinton and, most recently, Janelle Monáe, the Afrofuturist aesthetic has come into conversation amongst a new generation of youth and young adults that literally experience the world as cyborgs, both existing in person and as their online avatars…

Video + Free download: 'FACes', dope track by UK singer/songwriter/Mark Ronson & Cee Lo collaborator Tawiah. The video was shot in Accra, Ghana. "The track was released as a free download in support of International Day for Street Children and Street Child Africa." 'FACes', written and produced by Tawiah and Jodi Milliner, is from Tawiah's upcoming release 'FREEdom…

Pretty much since the beginning, punk rock has been split between the pranksters and the revolutionaries. For every Joe Strummer hell-bent on changing the world with his music there are 20 guys who just want to have a few drinks with their buddies and play some songs loud and fast. South London's Emergency Bitter aren't likely to reinvent music, but that's not the point. They're here to put on a show…

Meet Brooklyn-based punk rock band FELON. Lead vocalist Sanchez tells us: "We're just some ghetto dudes making street punk". Sounds like a plan... Check out their profile on afropunk.com. All we know for now is that they're "street punks who take no shit from anyone; a multi-racial band with…

Are you psyched for the new Baby Baby record? Of course you are. My informal poll of everyone sitting in front of my laptop, with a sample size of 1, showed that 100% of people are way into Baby Baby. (Eat your heart out, Nate Silver.) Their new record Big Boy Baller Club doesn't drop until this summer, but they just taped an acoustic session of the new track “Best Franz”as part of Blue Indians “Acoustic Alley” series.…

Congrats to Badass Guitarist and Singer Malina Moye for her feature in Guitar Girl Mag. Guitar nerd talk, business talk, being a part of the Chuck Berry Rock and Roll Hall Of Fame tribute (with Chuck in attendance!) and more. Click here to read the interview.…

So you got your flight booked. You got your badge. You got your 5x7 corner of someone’s living room that you paid $500 for, but they’re totally hanging a sheet up, so you know: privacy. You’re ready for SXSW, so don’t fuck it up. Here are the shows you most definitely don’t want to miss.…

I'm reminded of the Van Halen paradox from Bill and Ted. You need Eddie Van Halen to play guitar to have a hit record. But you need a hit record to get Van Halen to play guitar. But for RDGLDGRN having Dave Grohl play drums on their debut EP is less a hit-making move than it is the icing on the cake. Grohl's strength as a drummer has always been his ability to play virtuosic beats but still lay back and let someone else take the spotlight, be it Kurt Cobain, David Bowie, Josh…

AP Quickie: Afropunk Festival alums Joe Jordan's Experiment are back with some new music. Stream the Philly-based rock band's track 'Climb', bump your heads and let us know what you think! (Afropunk Festival 2012 photo by Gretchen Robinette) - L.…

Singer and civil rights activist Nina Simone would have been 80 this week. The rightly titled High-Priestess of Soul cut an unimpeachable string of 40 records in her career. While musically, her songs fall pretty squarely in line with the vocal jazz sounds of the late 50's, her songs have not aged into elegance and irrelevance the way many of her contemporaries have. Listening to the landmark 1964 live album Nina Simone in Concert, her performance isn't merely electric.…

Parisian deathcore band As They Burn's latest record Will, Love, Life is a punishing piece of hardcore. The band marries quasi-progressive song structures to tried-and-true hardcore pummeling for a sound that owes a little bit to extreme metal luminaries Meshuggah. The band's first for Victory Records is less melodic than previous efforts (the lead guitar bits and occasional crooning of Aeon's War are all but gone) but the band's ability to completely kick your…

We hadn't heard from the homies of RDGLDGRN in a long while. Turns out they were cooking up a record with collaborators such as Foo Fighters front man Dave Grohl (on drums on the entire album) and producer Kevin Augunas. Even Pharrell Williams got his hands in it and co-produced/co-wrote a track.

You might remember the guys from their former band - long-time Afropunk community members -…

I'm a sucker for a killer bassline. And the new single from Yinka (from the forthcoming full-length A Hundred Hurricanes Coming Through) delivers that and a hell of a lot more. A catchy dance-punk track, “No Brakes” is the missing link between Prince, the Talking Heads, and Q and Not U. (It's also reminding me that I really need to get my brakes fixed. But that's not really relevant, is it?)…

Pretty much since 5 minutes after a bunch of clean-cut Liverpudlians made rock safe for TV in 1963, folks have been periodically declaring “real rock n roll” dead. And while a credible argument could be made that the moment represented the first death of “real rock n roll,” what's really true is that every generation has their rebirth and death of “real rock n roll.” That dangerous but soulful riffy shit that's a little rough around the edges, makes no apologies, and calls back…